


Carol of the (Dumb)Bells

by snowflakeofdestruction



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Christmas fic, Humor, M/M, References to A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-12 13:13:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28760850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowflakeofdestruction/pseuds/snowflakeofdestruction
Summary: Roxas just doesn't see a point to Christmas. Axel tries to get him on board with the help of some accomplice ghosts.Written for the Akuroku Server Holiday Fic Exchange.
Relationships: Axel/Roxas (Kingdom Hearts), Roxas & Xion (Kingdom Hearts)
Kudos: 10





	Carol of the (Dumb)Bells

**Author's Note:**

> Merry Belated Christmas to foxfairie on Discord! I hope you like this and I am sorry for being so late!

“Every struggler down in Twilight Town liked Christmas a lot, but the keybearer who lived by the clocktower did not.” 

Roxas pointedly ignored his boyfriend’s ramblings. “What do you think the weather will be like in Port Royal? It’s generally pretty warm, right?" He considered his own question for a moment, since, clearly, Axel wasn't. "Though there’s whipping wind when you go out sailing. I’m going to wear a sweater. I know it’s not in the spirit of the place, but, since one of the people I’m meeting is a talking mouse, I’m not that worried about blending in with the locals. I’ll be back in a few days, and hopefully by then you’ll be over this little hissy fit about me not wanting you to put up any garbage we have to pack back away in a week or two or go to any parties.”

Axel flung himself on the bed, legs splayed and one arm out so there was no surface left for Roxas, a suitcase, or even clothes to consider packing for a trip without covering him as Roxas searched through the closet. “ Roxas hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season! Now, please don't ask why. No one quite knows the reason.”

“I don’t hate Christmas. I just don’t see the point,” Roxas huffed, the dismayed dimple of a rivulet between his eyebrows that said he was trying very hard to understand and failing making an appearance. He got confused less these days, but sometimes he still proved he didn’t have a past human life that was truly his to reference. “If you really want to spread love and good will and..." His rambling reach for buzz words of what Christmas represented trailed off for a minute until he found more phrases. "...Kind deeds or whatever, we should be volunteering to make the rounds to worlds nobody has checked up on in a while at the end of December instead of blocking it off, that’s all. I don’t need presents. You definitely don’t need any more stuff. And what’s the use of decorating when we’re just going to have to waste time we won't have because we need to make up for taking days off taking it all down?”

“It could be his head wasn't screwed on just right,” Axel continued his dramatic recitation without pity. “It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight.” He made eye contact and broke his narrator's voice for the first time. “It’s very likely if we compare your shoes to Sora's.”

Roxas’s only response was a withering look and turning his back to Axel again.

Axel went back to telling the story of the Roxas Who Stole Christmas as his love went back to debating shirts, “But, I think that the most likely reason of all, may have been that his heart, like his body, was two sizes too small.”

“Now you’re just being mean.” Roxas found an appropriately warm and water resistant windbreaker hiding between Axel’s coats and rescued it from being swallowed up by black leather. "And not just to me. My heart is partially due to you, you know. Maybe if you focused more on me than Christmas, it would grow."

“Whatever the reason, his heart or his shoes, he stood there, a week until Christmas, all hating and giving me the blues.” 

“Still ignoring you.” Roxas shrugged into the windbreaker, grabbed a sweater and a pair of jeans at random he shrunk and hid in a pocket like Merlin had taught him, and headed for the door. “If you want to say goodbye like a normal person and get a kiss goodbye, your time is running out.”

Axel was off the bed and cutting Roxas off, blocking the door with what seemed like supernatural speed. He tapped a finger to his lips like he was inviting the goodbye kiss Roxas had spoken of, but didn’t stop flapping his jaw long enough for it to happen. “Staring down from his cave with a sour, Roxas frown at the warm lighted windows below in their town. For he knew every person down in Twilight Town beneath was busy now, hanging a mistletoe wreath.”

Roxas leaned up on his toes and put his arms around Axel’s neck, pulling the taller man down and pressing their bodies together. It could have read like a trick that he was now smiling softly, pliant and affectionate where he’d been annoyed a moment prior, even before Axel blocked his exit, but Axel, despite being a former assassin, wasn’t the best at seeing through traps when Roxas was the one setting them. “Mistletoe wreath on a door? What good is that going to do? You need to get under the mistletoe, right? So, do you sink down low when you get to the door before someone opens it? What would you be supposed to kiss then?” His tone followed the rest of his act, no longer scornful in his confusion, but, rather, playacting innocent, purposefully clumsy in his portrayal, mischief in his eyes and hands already sneaking under Axel’s shirt.

"You're distracting me," Axel accused with a groan (annoyed, not the groan Roxas wanted), tilting his head back against the door and grabbing Roxas’s forearms, gently trying to still his progress in said distractions.

Roxas pouted even though he’d already won by stopping the narration. He wiggled his bottom lip a second to entice Axel to bite it, but sucked it back in when it seemed not even that bait was going to be taken. “You were trying to distract me first. I just was trying to get something out of it.”

“I’m not trying to distract you,” Axel whined as his hands left Roxas’s arms and wrapped loosely around him. “I’m trying to make you think twice about leaving me on Christmas.”

“A week until Christmas,” Roxas amended dryly.

“And saying a hardy bah-humbug to all Christmas celebrations.”

“I’m not saying...bah-humbug?” Roxas gave an air of incredulity to the unfamiliar word and scrunched his face more as he said it. “Who says bah-humbug? What’s that?”

A rumble of a chuckle that Roxas felt more than heard shook Axel’s chest as the redhead kissed the furrow off of his forehead. “Oh, babe, you’re about to find out.”

With that, Axel withdrew his hug, reached behind his back, and opened the door. He stepped backward out into the hall and then stepped aside with a waggle of brows to reveal Xion, who seemed at first more concerned with a long paper chain she was holding bundled in her arms, turning in circles to wrap it around her body as she slowly unspooled it, until she noticed Roxas and stopped, letting out a low, long, “Oooh!” of an enthusiastic, if cliché, ghost impression. 

“Xion? When did you get here?” Roxas asked with an aside glance to the entirely too pleased with himself looking Axel in place of keeping eye contact with her.

“What do you want with us, spirit?” Axel howled dramatically, hand pressed to his forehead, before Xion could answer.

“Much!” Xion beamed.

Roxas knew a scheme when he saw one, having frequently been involved in them. “I don’t have time for this.” He tried to step around both of them, but Axel and Xion’s combined determination and a hastily thrown loop of paper chain, told him to stay put.

“Man of worldly mind, do you believe in this spectre or not?” Xion declaimed, apparently trying to jump on his back. “I am Xion, your old partner and friend.”

“I know who you...Let me go!’ Roxas thrashed. “Did you both eat something you brought back from Wonderland?”

“I wear the chain I forged in life, and...Stay still!” Xion wrestled with him. “You are breaking my chain I forged in life link by link! It took a long time to make and you’re ripping it!” They collapsed to the floor as Axel backed up out of their way, shoulders shaking and tears gathering at the corners of his eyes.

“I’m going to make sure everyone else is set. Good job being quiet coming in,” the mastermind of the mess told Xion, wiping at his eyes, before abandoning friend and boyfriend both in their hour of need.

“You are making yourself a longer chain, as long as this one several..um...days ago.” Xion planted her knees on Roxas’s back now that he was on the floor.

“I did no such thing.”

“Yeah, you did. It’s because of a cold spirit and resentment of Christmas.” There was clearly more to her script, but Xion gave in all at once, acknowledging that the plan had gone off track (at least Roxas hoped that this wasn’t how a perfect unfolding of events was supposed to go), and letting Roxas up. “And so you’re going to be visited by three ghosts to show you the error of your ways. That’s the general gist. I’m cursed because I failed to appreciate the holidays and you are doomed to the same fate unless something changes.”

“You and Axel will wrap me in a paper chain?”

“One longer than mine, “ Xion confirmed. 

“We have actual handcuffs,” Roxas pointed out, equal parts contrary and confused.

“I know, though I meant that as a gag gift,” Xion volleyed back. “And that’s not the point.” She shouted into the next room. “Naminé, are you ready?”

“What is the point?” Roxas protested, sighing. “I don’t have time for this. Mickey and Kairi are waiting.”

“No, they aren’t. They know you’ll be late or not come,” Xion assured him, much too casually for his liking, especially since she provided no further explanation and cut off him asking for detail with another call for Naminé. 

The artist in question, who had avoided paper chains, Roxas saw, but had made the questionable choice of dressing in a long, high-necked old fashioned nightgown and carried a small gong, ran up, bare feet padding against the hall carpet, to derail conversation completely with a decisive strike of the gong. Xion bowed and retreated, flashing Roxas a smile and a fairly disconcerting, “Good luck!”

“Naminé, please tell me what’s going on,” Roxas pleaded, not expecting compliance, but hoping for some reason in the madness and determination to make him late.

“I am the ghost of Christmas Past,” Naminé said, even-keel and straight faced. “Not far past, but of _ your  _ past. Please follow me if you know the way.”

“To the past?” Roxas asked, nonplussed. “I really don’t think we should be messing with time travel.”

“To the living room.” Naminé let out a small, dismayed sigh. “But you need to stop trying to convince people to break character. It’s difficult enough as it is. We didn’t have much rehearsal time.” 

With that, she turned and walked away, leaving Roxas to follow on her heels.

“Remember. These are but shadows of the things that have been,” Naminé warned. “They have no consciousness of us.”

“What does that mean?” Roxas grumbled, resigned both to not getting a straight answer and to his ultimate answer being that he needed to just play along to get through whatever Axel had planned as quickly as possible.

The coffee table had been moved and the couch pushed back. Many of Roxas and Axel’s former colleagues from the Organization sat in two circles, crammed into the center of the floor, various degrees of uncomfortable back in long, black cloaks. Xion was still zipping hers up as she dropped into place next to what had to be Ventus.

Terra, the most clearly out of his element of all assembled, towered over the lounging group, Isa by his side. “Did you tell them they could have the holidays off?” he intoned--no other word for the forced, low, reverberating recitation that left him duck lipped as he focused too heavily on putting bass into his voice. “What do Nobodies care for Christmas?”

“Even those without hearts still have dear memories of yuletimes past and to deprive them of celebrating would lead to rebellion.” Isa’s gaze never left the ceiling and tone clearly said he was participating under duress. “Better to let them have their empty traditions, even if they can’t take joy in them.” 

“But you did take joy in it,” Naminé countered, startling Roxas when she spoke in his ear. “Watch and remember what that first Christmas was like.”

Ventus and Axel struggled to pull apart a popper that burst to reveal a red paper crown with a moogle on it. Ventus overplayed his surprise when the pop happened and was far too earnest in his goggle-eyed freeze up when Axel fixed the crown on his head and called him a king, but, strangely it had the intended effect. Roxas did remember the way his heart jumped when he thought he’d broken Axel’s newest variation of “icing on the cake,” and how it had refused to calm when Axel’s gloved fingers had lingered over brushing his hair from his face and settling the crown to the right angle. He remembered Axel’s burning eyes that didn’t leave him even when he dipped his head to murmur, “My liege,” pledging loyalty for the first but not last time. He remembered the parts they had forgotten, Xion laughing at him for jolting--one of the first times they’d seen more lively emotion from her--and him groaning and shoving her, which only made her smile more because that was what you did with friends. More than that though, Roxas remembered Axel’s perpetual, largely empty smirk morphing into an unguarded smile that hadn’t been seen before, even when they had sea salt ice cream and sunsets just for them, as he explained sledding and caroling, trimming a tree, and Christmas gifts, much like he was doing with Ventus now. 

Ventus-Roxas heard about presents and coyly asked for one of his own. Axel made a paper star from a napkin. Real Roxas had forgotten about that. He didn’t still have it. He must have thrown it away.

“It was one of the happier days,” Roxas admitted, “But that’s not saying much, and we have plenty of happier days now.”

“You weren’t the same people then. Axel remembers it as an early step to becoming something more. The others do too. Watch more.” Naminé played the ghost well, beckoning with an entire arm, a lilt in her voice and smile on her face, better acting in the fact that she stopped it from reaching her eyes than if she had. 

Prompted by Naminé’s words. Demyx slung an arm around Elrena’s shoulders. She hissed and twitched but then donned an acid smile and said in a syrup voice. “I’ll let it slide this time, Wet Blanket.” Lauriam, posing as Marluxia, took a popper and a plate with some pizza rolls on it (Roxas remembered their dinner as more substantive, but he didn’t fault the recreation) to Isa who thanked him stiffly.

“Normal rivals made peace. They  _ felt _ . That is what that Christmas meant.”

“Okay, I get it.” Roxas couldn’t call this seemingly forced second part of the scene out as false, though he suspected it, but he could appreciate the point. “Christmas is important. I’ll make sure I’m home. We’ll put up a tree and shit. Great job everyone. Let’s all get together for real when I get back.”

Naminé put a hand out in front of Roxas’s body and shook her head. Nobody else showed any reaction to hearing him speak. “Your journey is just beginning. That was the first Christmas. You missed the second.”

Everyone stood and walked out of the room, Demyx carrying several plates of pizza rolls to ensure they weren’t left behind, or possibly to ensure they all went to him. Axel was the only one that remained. He sat on the ground, arms around his knees, making himself as small as he could, which wasn’t very. 

“Santa,” the redhead asked, making eye contact with Roxas. “I know we stopped talking long before I even became a Nobody. I don’t know why you would care for me. I’ve always been naughty, but, please, I just have one wish. Bring him back. Not even for me. He’s good. He’s decent. He deserves to have a life. He may not be the best part of your friend, Sora, but to me he is.” Axel paused for a long moment, screwing up his face like he had to sneeze, eyes twitching like he was blinking out grit.

“He’s trying to cry,” Naminé supplied with a whisper to Roxas’s ear. He nodded. That made sense. He wanted to roll his eyes at Axel’s drama mongering, but felt his own chest constrict despite his better judgment.

“Hold me, Ellie,” Demyx’s voice cut through the emotion, undermining it, especially when it was answered by a very Larxene-like, “Drop dead. I was told I only had to touch you once.”

Axel rested his forehead against his legs and heaved a loud, very fake sounding sob before practically yelling, “Give him back, Santa, and we’ll both celebrate Christmas all out every year.”

“I get it,” Roxas repeated his earlier words testily. “Mission accomplished.”

His words fell on deaf ears as Axel sprung to his feet and threw off his coat and Ventus brushed past to join him.

“By the next year, circumstances changed again,” Naminé continued to narrate. “It should have been a happy Christmas. Your first full celebration. You had other priorities.”

“I thought we would pick out a tree today,” Axel suggested to Ventus.

“I have to go to the mansion,” Ventus replied, robotic and frowning. Roxas was quite sure he’d never made that expression. “Pence is fixing up another simulation for me and Xion to run through.”

“I care about finding Sora too, of course I do, but…”

“Just pick one out without me,” Ventus insisted. “I am too busy, and here you should imply I am a bad person for not being as dedicated as you are. Reminder. Don’t read handwritten notes out loud!”

Stray titters broke out and Axel grimaced, but Roxas didn’t feel like laughing. “Oh fuck off. I take it back. You know I am right, and you should stop being a baby about this Christmas thing.”

Axel met his glare with defiance. “What is that, but the dawning of the second hour?”

There was a muffled curse from the kitchen and two gong strikes.

“It’s time I leave you, but there is still more to see,” Naminé hummed.

“There’s nothing to stop me from just walking out,” Roxas reminded the room in general, but made no move except continuing to pout. He’d see Axel’s little stunt to the end before he left, even if it was so he could add to his list of why Axel should have quit while he was ahead.

“Come in! Come in and get to know me better man!” Sora announced cheerfully as he was the one to come into the room, riding atop Riku’s shoulders, an oversized green robe spilling off his body and waterfalling down Riku’s back. 

“I am the ghost of Christmas Present. Look upon me.” Riku was much more dour as Sora waved a bunch of grapes in front of his face until he bit one off the bottom then raised the grapes up for himself.

“You have never seen the like of me before!” Sora proclaimed happily.

“You got me there,” Roxas scoffed. “So go ahead and show me what terrible Christmas Axel will have without me while I bah-humbug and make me feel guilty.”

“Terrible Christmas?” Sora parroted incredulously. “Ho ho! That does not sound like our jolly Axel.”

“His joy will be stolen if the one he gave his heart to abandons him on Christmas, but his friends will gather to try and restore it.” Much like Isa, Riku rushed through what he had to say like he was being timed, which earned him a flick on the ear from Sora. He gestured stiffly. “Look and behold.”

The herd of houseguests Roxas hadn’t consented to filed back in from the kitchen, this time without a black cloak in sight or a white wig for Terra, making loud conversation amongst themselves, except for those that just repeated, “Peas and carrots,” over and over. Elrena remained behind, though Roxas wasn’t certain whether she’d dropped out of the skit or simply wasn’t in this scene, but Aqua had replaced her, a pitcher of what looked like orange juice in hand.

It was Aqua’s moment, apparently, and she held the drink over her head as she took a place at the center of the crowd and began to speak. “I know paopu fruit is usually meant for lovers and family, but our destinies are already entwined and I see no better way to celebrate the season of coming together than to say I wouldn’t have it any other way.” She nodded to Demyx, who began to hand out cups. “So, a toast! Many toasts! All around a cheer for all our dearest friends being here!”

“Except for Roxas,” Ventus groaned from deep in his chest in agony, chewing the scenery and establishing himself as playing himself in the present scene. 

“I still don’t think it’s that big of a deal,” Xion protested, wrapping what remained of her paper chain around her neck. “Though I didn’t want to miss it.”

“This is so on the nose,” Roxas grumbled. He could have sworn Riku nodded while shifting Sora to a more comfortable position, and it almost made him reconsider.

“Only words from the heart are spaken!” Sora declared in his booming Christmas ghost voice.

“Spaken?” Roxas questioned.

“Bespoke in therein yonder room!” Sora flapped his arms, narrowing his eyes a bit. “Words of truth and of love. Of the warmth of hearth and...other good things. Listen to them, and think of the path you may have wandered from, and the ones you are leading others down!”

Roxas shrugged but didn’t protest any further.

“I didn’t want to miss it,” Xion repeated herself, proving her statement to be a cue.

Terra came over and put a hand on Xion’s shoulder. “I know how you feel.” As opposed to his earlier forced acting, Terra was grounded, as if he was speaking from the heart. Perhaps it was because he was just playing the role of himself. “I don’t put much stock on one special day over any other we could celebrate. I don’t care much for some old traditions, and when we make new ones, it just seems like we could make new holidays too.” He looked at Roxas over Xion's head as he continued to preach, heavy-handed as the rest. “But it means something to people I care about, so it’s a way to show I care about them.” He took a cup from Demyx and raised it. “So, to Christmas bringing us together!”

Roxas told himself to stay strong against the extended guilt trip. Axel knew he cared. He told him and showed him all the time. This display and the fact all their friends had gone along with it, wasn’t nearly as cute as Axel thought, though maybe Roxas could have seen what he was getting at if they’d talked about it. He hadn’t meant to dismiss something that might actually be important to Axel; he just hadn’t thought of it that way.

“To Christmas!” Xion agreed and dropped her chain. “I’ll need to leave soon to pick up Hayner, Pence, and Olette. They were begging to be shown Christmastown, but Roxas doesn’t like to go anywhere near Halloweentown.”

“And we need to keep the world order!” Roxas tried to argue, though Xion wouldn’t break the scene. That was another low blow all around. He was not scared of Lock, Shock, and Barrell if that was what Xion was implying. Sora liked Halloweentown, so Roxas usually let him take missions there. He was being nice. He could go back any time. World order was why he had refused Hayner’s request. He shouldn’t have been talking about other planets with him in the first place.

“They were pretty bummed out. I don’t think Roxas realized how much,” Xion spoke like Roxas wasn’t there, though she frowned at him. “They don’t hold a grudge though. Pence said to tell him he said ‘God bless us every one.’ They each wanted to say those words--were pretty insistent on it. Pence won rock, paper, scissors though so he gets the credit. Anyway, to thinking of others, now of all times especially!”

“I think of others!” Roxas felt his waning patience tried once more. He wasn’t sure he would find it again. “I think it’s Axel who is being selfish and you’re all enabling him!”

There were some uneasy looks exchanged and a delighted laugh from the kitchen, along with a bid to “Slap him!” that explained Elrena’s participation.

“I don’t think this is working out as planned,” Demyx, master of the obvious, addressed the room.

Axel waved to silence him. “I don’t want to shame Roxas.” He continued quickly, talking over any attempt Roxas would have to call him out for continuing to make speeches instead of just having a conversation. “I just wanted him to understand that feeling you have, decorating the tree, or looking for the perfect present...or whatever, taking that moment to be with people you love and remember the small acts of kindness and not just the big scale world saving. And I _did_ make a promise to Santa. I am that lame. Then...I know it’s stupid, but it did start to seem like maybe he just didn’t want those special moments with me, or didn’t care any more when I tried to explain things...and maybe Christmas wasn’t all he didn’t understand. Maybe some of the stuff he says to me is just because he still doesn’t understand or feel the words as deeply as I do.” 

Axel was earnest even if he was so, so misguided still, and Roxas couldn’t sustain any anger.

“So, you’re an idiot and so are our friends,” he summed up, voice soft this time.

“But we mean well,” Xion chipped in.

“I tried to tell you, but you kept brushing me off,” Axel pleaded his case.

Everyone parted and gave Roxas the space to move to Axel’s side. “I’m an idiot too.”

“I don’t really have a problem with you going to Port Royale, but when you get back…”

“Yeah, I’ll stay put and we can decorate and plan a Christmas dinner--or join the Land of Departure?” Roxas addressed the last to Aqua.

“We’re still planning a celebration. We’d love to have you both,” Aqua confirmed.

“We’ll take the gang to Christmastown and I’ll let you give me a tour. I’ll even pick out a gift you don’t need.” Roxas wrapped Axel in a hug. They swayed. Sora, Xion, and, surprisingly, Isa awwed with varying degrees of mockery. 

“It’s not about the gift…” Axel started.

“It’s about the thought and wanting people to be happy blah blah, but you do want a gift,” Roxas dismissed him. “I’ll get into it. I already at least like the mistletoe.”

“We’ll get a wreath.” Axel kissed his forehead.

Elrena booed them goodnaturedly from the kitchen. “I was sure this was a disaster. Soft hearts take the fun out of everything.”

“Can...uh….we like, go home now?” Demyx asked.

“Please,” Roxas confirmed.

Friends dispersed, goodbyes coming in clumps, Isa expressing gratitude the “farce” was stopped before Christmas Yet to Come. “I was supposed to play a dual role as the ghost in question and Axel’s future husband after you broke up with him, and I fear it would have been difficult to pull off, even if you held yourself back from using your keyblades on me.” 

Axel followed Isa’s betrayal of his plans with repeated apology and confessions of both love and knowledge of his own idiocy.

“I can forgive it. I won’t _forget_ it, but I’ll forgive it,” Roxas allowed as they were left alone again at last. “When I get back from Port Royale, I’ll also let you read me that Christmas Carol book you were talking up.”

“Yeah...sure,” Axel agreed, though he sounded less than sure. “I have something to tell you about that though…”


End file.
